If you aren't informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.
BTW, we seem to have netted a twofer in the cull of corruption... look here for names, events, and interconnections:
Posted on 04/28/2005 10:33:14 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has cleared his former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, of any violation of staff rules in shredding documents shortly before the start of an inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, a UN spokesman said today.
"After reviewing the findings in the latest Volcker report and consulting with the Office of Legal Affairs ... the Secretary-General has found there is no ground for disciplinary action against him," said the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. "The Secretary-General acknowledges that Mr Riza's actions were careless but he does not believe that they can be construed as deliberate attempts to impede the work of the investigation," Mr Dujarric said.
In its latest interim report last month, an independent inquiry commission headed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker faulted Mr Riza, of Pakistan, for having shredded piles of documents related to the oil-for-food program.
Mr Annan appointed Mr Volcker to investigate oil-for-food after allegations of corruption came to public attention when a Baghdad newspaper published a list of those allegedly bought off by Saddam Hussein's regime.
The interim report said Mr Riza ordered last year, when he was Mr Annan's chief of staff, the destruction of three years of documents, just one day after the UN Security Council gave its blessing to the Volcker panel.
The documents covered the years 1997-1999, the period when Cotecna, a Swiss company which employed Mr Annan's son Kojo, had a contract with the oil-for-food scheme.
"The timing of this destruction order is striking because of Mr Riza's awareness of the committee's pending investigation," the report said.
When the panel told Mr Riza it would make an "adverse finding" against him, Mr Riza replied that there were copies of the destroyed files elsewhere. But the panel said it knows of documents that are missing.
"The committee does not find persuasive Mr Riza's suggestion," it said.
The documents continued to be destroyed for more than seven months after Annan had ordered all UN staff to preserve any files connected to oil-for-food, it said.
While calling Mr Riza's actions careless, Mr Annan said however that the episode should not tarnish his long career at the UN.
"I accept your apology and assure you that I still have great faith in your professionalism and well known integrity," Mr Annan wrote in a letter to Mr Riza dated April 19 and made public yesterday.
Mr Riza, 70, resigned at the end of last year and was replaced by Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton, who has since undertaken to clean house at the UN, which has been rocked by several management scandals.
The shysterism of the UN knows no bounds!
Al Capone clears Meyer Lansky!
That and a dime will still not buy a cup of coffee in this part of the world.
Shysterism is the right word to describe the Annan - Clintons era.
I wonder what type of golden parachute he got.
It's Volcker I don't trust. Never have.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Mr. Iqbal Riza as his Chef de Cabinet in January 1997.
Mr. Riza, a national of Pakistan, had been serving as special representative of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Coordinator of United Nations operations in Bosnia Herzegovina from February to December 1996.
Prior to this assignment, Mr. Riza was Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Peace-keeping Operations, where he worked from March 1993 to January 1996. Before that he served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Chief of the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL), since August 1991.
He was also Chief of Mission of the United Nations Transition Team in El Salvador (March-August 1990); Chief of the United Nations Observer Mission for verification of the electoral process in Nicaragua (ONUVEN) (August 1989-February 1990); Director of the Division for Political and General Assembly Affairs (1988-1989); and Director of the Office for Special Political Affairs (1983-1988).
Mr. Riza also held the post of Principal Officer in the United Nations Department of Public Information (1980-82) and Secretary of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (1978-1980).
Prior to joining the United Nations, he served with Pakistan’s Foreign Service from 1958 to 1977, holding various diplomatic assignments in London (1966-1968), Khartoum (1964-1966), Bonn (1962-1964), Madrid (1959-1961) and Foreign Office (1958-1959). He served as Director of the Foreign Service Academy in Lahore (1968-1971), and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Pakistani Embassy in Paris, where he also acted as Deputy Permanent Representative to UNESCO.
Mr. Riza was born on 20 May 1934 in Lonavla, India, and has a MA degree in Political Science from the University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, and a MA degree in International Law from Fletcher School of International Law, Boston, USA.
He's innocent, and Satan is going to Heaven.
If you aren't informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.
BTW, we seem to have netted a twofer in the cull of corruption... look here for names, events, and interconnections:
Reminds me of the B.I.G. Lyric:
(How ya livin Biggie Smalls?) I'm surrounded by criminals,
Heavy rollers and sheisty individuals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.